recipe: gulaschsuppe mit zwiebelbrot (goulash soup with onion bread)

cook-a-cow, continued 

this week's cut: eye of the round

 #8 from the round primal cut, connected, with or without the round bone (femur), sometimes includes the knuckle (tip of the sirloin). It's lean, quite tough, so needs slow cooking. Pickling is common (aka corned beef) or just braising or stewing, as in this recipe.

The butcher down in Mt Eden shops brought out the whole silverside when I asked him what he had, suitable for a slow cooked german goulash. Cutting away the eye of the round, firm lean & with a good covering of fat, it's perfect for a dish like this. I took it as a single piece.

ingredients: the goulash

beef, silverside or topside, or stewing steak, cut into bite sized chunks

red wine, pepper, cumin, bay, garlic

a mire-poix (rough cut, uniform size) of onions, carrots, celeriac, leek

tomato paste

olive oil

roast peppers

method:

*marinate the beef in red wine & spices for an hour or more

*in the meantime, get the mire-poix going in a good sturdy pan/pot on a medium heat. you dont want to cook it, just get the flavour base happening. shake the pan. after about 5 minutes, remove from the pan, set aside & turn the heat up for the next stage.

*in batches, add the chunks of beef, drained & patted dry to brown in the hot pan (keep the marinating liquids!)

*when all done, add a really good dollop of tomato paste, then add another one, to the meat. stir it about to get a good coating happening & allow the tomato to begin caramelising.

*add the veg 

*without over stirring about, & without letting the tomato burn, slowly add the red wine marinating liquid & deglaze the pan (in other words, scrap all the sticky bits from the base of the pan using a wooden spoon).

*bring to the boil then turn the heat right down to barely a simmer. 

 *the goulash cooks in this way, uncovered, on the stove, gently simmering pretty much all day. whenever the liquid gets low, add a little more red wine, or perhaps a cup of nice stock.

*to finish the goulash, stir in the chopped peppers, roasted & pickled, I've started using the flame-roasted peppers, Sandhurst brand, available on the supermarket shelf.

ingredients: onion bread

cumin seed, flour, sugar, yeast, beer, onion, salt

method:

*drop the cumin in a dry pan, on the heat, & warm it a little to release the spice, toasty like

*add a little oil to the pan, add the finely sliced onions, saute altogether

*remove from heat, allow to cool

*spoon the yeast into a cup of beer, mix it a bit, & let it sit a few moments until it begins to foam

*meanwhile, fold the onions thru the flour & make a well to pour in the yeast & all of the beer. 

* mix together steadily to form a dough & knead it for roughly 3 of yr favourite Falco songs. (you could download "Rock me Amadeus" on itunes - my friend Sonja loves this track)

*prove this dough til doubled in size, or, as I did, in a bowl covered with cling film, overnight

*knock back the dough, knead again, & shape it. I put mine in a lined baking tin. Let it rise again.

*brush with egg wash & bake the bread at roughly 200 for roughly 20 mins.

In many ways, a simple dish. As always though, method is king. I build my flavours at every stage, using the pan juices from the mire-poix vegetables at the meat browning stage, caramelising the tomato paste, releasing flavour from the spices by warming the pan first...& of course time. Pretty much always, I'll make the stew a day ahead, allowing it to sit overnight, so the flavours can develop.

During the day, as my Goulash was happily bubbling away, Sonja popped by to check that everything was in order. Germans! (lol)  Oh ok, I confess, I added some shaved ham that was in the fridge as the meat was sealed, it basically dissolved thru the cooking, but again, helped build a flavour base, plus I used beef cheek stock from a few weeks back to keep the dish nice & moist...she'd come to make sure I hadnt strayed too far from her mother's recipe. It was a great pleasure to see her walk into my kitchen & close her eyes, filling her senses with familiar smells & trying a mouthful, watching her transported back...I love that.

 For me, I managed little more than the leftovers, the rest was packaged up & enjoyed by dinnerboxers round central Auckland on Friday night. But that's ok, it's where a cook's true joy comes in, knowing that this good food is being enjoyed by folks who love to eat. A real pleasure, & a real pleasure to have another chef take part in the fridaynightdinnerbox journey. Thanks Sonja!

Therein lies the idea: to invite chef friends to contribute a dish & share the story that goes with it.

More to follow!